Station XII: Roman Museum

What to do with all the aristocratic girls who don't get married in time? What to do with the widowed women from the upper middle classes? They were taken in by the imperial convent in Tulln. Not least because of the dowry that each of the nuns had to bring in. And which freed them from gardening, nursing and pastoral care. But the prioresses of the Dominican order also had good relations with the imperial court. In 1443, the Habsburg King Frederick III personally granted them the privilege of "transporting ten cartloads of wine to Passau and two pounds of salt through Austria free of tolls every year." But then a fire destroys the extensive monastery and the stately church. The nuns went into debt to rebuild it. And had to leave their religious refuge on the banks of the Danube.

Addicted to madness.

In Egon's school days, a sanatorium is housed in the spacious rooms of the former convent. Anyone receiving treatment here had to be able to afford it. Many of the well-heeled patients suffer from nervous disorders and delusions. "Addicted to insanity", as the saying goes. Like Egon's father, who suffers from the late effects of syphilis. Memory loss. Hallucinations. Dementia. At the turn of the century, up to a third of all psychiatric patients were suffering from this insidious widespread disease.